Australian women may get phone access to abortion pill

Clair Morton
Journalist
Although I’ve moved around a bit, I’m a Queensland girl at heart with a love of the ocean and the mighty maroons. Since moving to Grafton earlier this year I have fallen in love with the Valley lifestyle. The best part of my job here is getting to know the locals and putting their stories on paper; there is always something going on and so many people with interesting tales to tell.

MEDICAL abortion may now be just a few phone calls away, with Australian women able to order the abortion pill to their door.

An Australian group called The Tabbot Foundation has launched an Australia-wide telephone consultation home medical termination of pregnancy service.

On dialling, a referral for an ultrasound and pathology test is arranged, followed by a phone consultation with a doctor and clinical psychologist.

If a medical termination is deemed appropriate, a plan will be devised and all medications will be expressed mailed by the foundation.

The abortion pill, Mifepristone or RU486, costs $250 with a Medicare card and can be used by women who are up to nine weeks pregnant.

It has been available in several countries for more than a decade but was restricted for use in Australia until July 2013, when the drug was listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

"Mifepristone has been safely used by millions of women in more than 50 countries who have had access to it for several years," the foundation says on its website.

"It is a safer, less invasive procedure than the alternatives not just because it can be performed much earlier than surgical abortions, but because it can be done safely in the privacy of a woman's home without surgical intervention."

The Tabbott Foundation also said access to medical terminations by telemedicine was particularly important to women living in rural and regional Australia.

"These women have to travel long distances or indeed travel interstate to undergo surgery or not had the option of surgery at all."

Reader poll

Are you for or against access to this medical termination service?

This poll ended on 28 October 2015.

Current Results

I'm all for it

55%

I don't think it's a good idea

32%

It doesn't bother me

11%

This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

According to The NSW Crimes Act 1900, unlawfully procuring an abortion is an offence punishable by imprisonment for up to ten years, and unlawfully supplying "any drug or noxious thing, or any instrument or thing whatsoever" for the purpose of procuring an abortion is punishable by imprisonment for up to five years.

A decision made in the NSW District Court in 1971 ruled an abortion was only lawful if the woman's doctor believed on reasonable grounds it was necessary to avoid a serious danger to her life or her physical or mental health.

The mental health criteria has since been interpreted to include "the effects of economic or social stress that may pertain either during pregnancy or after birth". Women are not entitled to abortion on demand.